Farmdrop, an award-winning online marketplace in the UK, recently announced that it has received an investment from Alex Chesterman, the man behind Zoopla and LoveFilm.

As previously reported, Farmdrop hit equity crowdfunding platform Crowdcube last year and secured its initial £400,000 fairly quick. By the end of its funding round, the company raised £748,880 from 352 investors.

Farmdrop allows local food producers to sell direct; a “click-and-collect farmers’ market.” The company’s key mission is to create and grow sustainable local food systems. By cutting out the middlemen, producers receive 80% of the retail price and customers can save money.

Here’s how FarmDrop works:

Members sign up and shop: People join their local FarmDrop and order online as they would from any other online grocery retailer.

Producers get their final orders: Farmers, fishermen, and bakers get their final orders three days before the drop, which helps them pick, catch and bake their orders.

The FarmDrop 1: producers bring the produce to the venue: The producers arrive first and put their orders into crates or bags for the customers.

The FarmDrop 2: members pick up their shop: The Members, who have put in an order, pick up their shopping.

How each FarmDrop starts: Each FarmDrop is started by a community-minded entrepreneur – the website calls hem Keepers. Once their application is successful, they need to find a venue (to host the FarmDrop) and enough Members and Producers to have a successful weekly market. All Producers pass due diligence process before they can start trading on the platform.

“[Chesterman] could see that we were starting to generate some traction, and that we had a very strong consumer value proposition. We’ve been very lucky at Farmdrop in being able to attract very successful tech entrepreneurs [as investors].”

Farmdrop recently had to alter its business model by moving to a system whereby the farm produce is distributed to one of 14 hubs in London. “We had to move towards a more convenient offer for both our customers and our producers,” Pugh revealed, then noted,“retained the core ethos around disintermediation.”

Farmdrop is also planning to launch a new crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube to raise 3 million in order to fund its plans for a city-wide home delivery service.

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